Coach Nick Mingione – Culture: Build it. Lead it. LIVE it.

Nick Mingione was named Kentucky’s head coach on June 13, 2016 and quickly became a respected piece of the UK Baseball program and local community, while guiding the Wildcats to their only Super Regional and first-ever College World Series appearance in school history.

In his rookie season as a head coach, Mingione proved a quick study as the 2017 Wildcats etched their name all over the school’s record books. The program made a trip to the NCAA Tournament Super Regionals for the first time and finished ranked in the Top 10 of every major college baseball poll. In year seven, Mingione repeated the feat by returning to the Super Regional and climbing into the Top 10 during the season.

 

UK has hosted a regional four times in history, all of which Mingione was on staff for, including twice as head coach.

 

The Wildcats had a record-breaking 2024 season that earned Mingione his second SEC and National Coach of the year awards.  UK set a new school record with 46 victories and won the SEC regular season crown for just the second time.

 

Mingione – who spent eight seasons as an assistant to Cohen at Mississippi State – was an immediate hit with fans and community leaders. He made it a point to have his team involved in the community, part of his “Student. Person. Player.” guiding principle of the program, participating in numerous philanthropic events in Lexington while also taking time for more than 100 local speaking engagements.

 

His impact on the Commonwealth culminated in being named a Kentucky Colonel on Oct. 23, 2017. The designation is the highest honor a civilian can receive in Kentucky. He also was named the 2022 winner of the Fellowship of Christian Athlete’s Jerry Kindall Character in Coaching Award for his work on and off the field.

 

The Cats also have been dominant in the classroom, having 31 players receive SEC Academic Honor Roll and First-Year Honor Roll in 2018, eight more than any other school in the conference. Zach Logue was named the SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year in 2017, Troy Squires won the prestigious Senior CLASS Award in 2018, the first Kentucky player to do so, and Marshall Gei was First-Team Academic All-America in 2019. T.J. Collett then became the second Wildcat in four years to win the Senior CLASS Award when he was honored in 2021. UK also has had an Academic All-American in five of the past six years.

 

“He’s a special coach,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said. “They know how to play. They know how to win. Their pitchers know exactly who they are, how to execute it. They know exactly the style of offense that they are, and they play it great. He’s a special dude. He’s a special competitor. He’s a great coach and a great human being.”

 

Mingione – born in Tarrytown, N.Y., before growing up in Florida – graduated from Embry-Riddle in 2000 with a degree in aerospace studies, as well as a triple minor in business, psychology and humanities. He was also a four-year letterman on the school’s baseball team.

Away from coaching, Mingione travels often for both speaking engagements and mission trips. In 2013, he and a group of former players and coaches helped build houses and run baseball clinics for youth on the Bahamian island of Eleuthera. When he returned stateside, he was inducted into the “Be The Best You Are” Baseball Clinic Speaker Hall of Fame. Other past inductees include Ted Williams (2002), Ron Polk (2003), Leo Mazzone (2006) and Cohen (2008).

Mingione and his wife, Christen, have one son, Reeves.

 

Key Takeaways:

1. From the start, it was pretty clear that Coach Mingione had coaching in his heart.  We talk a lot about pursuing your complete – one of the main aspects of this is pursuing a life that is truly in line with how you are wired from the inside.  This is the best path to pursuing a life as the best and most COMPLETE versions of ourselves.  Coach has clearly done this, and it comes out in the genuine nature with which he discusses his role as coach and leader.
2. “It’s not what you’re playing for, it’s WHO you’re playing for.”  What a fantastic notion for all of us – in sports and in life.  If we can maintain this as our mentality for ourselves, for the teams we play on, the businesses in which we work, the communities in which we live – playing and living not for trophies and awards, but as the best representative of ourselves and those around us…there is no limit for how far we can all go.
3. Coach’s three culture points:  1) It’s an everyday thing.  2) It’s about what you allow – he strives to allow his players to be best versions of selves  3) It’s about what you reinforce.  I love how he mentions that “consistency compounds.” The result - it becomes WHO YOU ARE as players and as a team.  That’s when the fun starts.
4. The standard is the standard.  I love this one.  There is little room for gray here.  And it’s great for all of us – as individuals and teams.  You establish standards that will lead you where you want to – and then you follow them.  Then you encourage repetition with acknowledgement and rewards.  As the repetition builds…you end up defining yourself and your team. As Coach indicates, elite teams and losing teams are usually defined by their standards. 
5. Feedback – breakfast of champions.  This is a great one as well.  We can’t grow if we can’t give and receive feedback.  When we give it, it needs to be from the right place in our hearts.  Likewise, when we receive it, it needs to be with an open heart. A critical piece to this is letting go of EGO.  Coach mentions that he defines ego as “Edging God Out” which I love as well.  Or another way to say it is just putting aside our self-interest and opening ourselves up for growth, acknowledging that the person giving the feedback just wants growth and improvement for us and the team.
6. Coach’s FOUNDATION is clear.  Faith, family, and UK make up his foundation and this is clearly genuine as he discusses it so naturally.   I really like how his faith is unwavering for him, but he acknowledges that, as a leader, he needs to meet his players where they are on THEIR journey.  He is always open to share his faith but won’t force it on anybody either.
7. Related to this point on FOUNDATION is our common notion of PURSUING COMPLETE.  I like how coach mentions here the important step of eliminating the negatives as well as adding the positives in this PURSUIT.  He can’t have whining, complaining, soft, lazy or selfish and strives to eliminate those as much as he works to build the positive elements of the team’s culture.  Eliminating the negatives from our lives should be just as much a part of our PURSUIT of COMPLETE as adding and chasing the positive aspects of who we strive to be.
8. Leadership style. Two points here.  First, I love coach’s simple, yet powerful style of simply asking questions and listening.  He mentions how this process takes some longer than others, but, as the example he provided of taking three meetings with one player, it sounds like Coach usually gets everybody where they need to be with this process. Second, the notion of “better caught than taught.” There’s no better way to lead than by example.  It can be supplemented by teaching and coaching, but they’ll follow you mostly because of what they SEE in you.

Links:

Website: www.ukathletics.com
IG: @ukbaseball
X: @Coach_Mingione